Ericsson
(NASDAQ: ERIC) and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) today showcased the power of 5G
network by demonstrating Beyond Visual
Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations at the India Mobile
Congress. The use cases leveraged the high bandwidth and the ultra-low latency
of the 5G network to showcase mission-critical applications such as disaster
response & monitoring, emergency delivery services and remote surveillance
made possible through drones.

Randeep
Sekhon, CTO - Bharti Airtel states “5G networks
have the potential to truly transform lives. As part of our endeavor to
leverage technology that truly adds value to our lives and the society, we are
pleased to demonstrate this powerful use case. Large scale deployment of 5Gnetworks
over the coming years will open unlimited avenues for innovating use cases that
can solve complex problems.”

Nunzio
Mirtillo, Head of South East Asia, Oceania and India
at Ericsson said, “Our association with Bharti
Airtel for the 5G based drone operations is one of the early use cases on 5G
that we have co-developed in India.
5G connectivity enables control and operation of drone beyond visual line of
sight enabling applications like disaster management and remote surveillance
amongst others. At Ericsson, we are working closely with telecom operators
across the world and in India
to develop 5G use cases that are relevant for the specific needs of the market.”

The BVLOS drone operations
leverages network slicing enabled by the 5G network wherein different network
slices can be allocated depending upon different use case for guaranteed and
uninterrupted quality of serve (QOS). Network slices can be defined in the
network and can be dynamically deployed in case of congestion to have seamless
user experience for different use cases. This enables multigigabit speeds and
reduced end to end latency. Developed with technical assistance from Idea
Forge, the demonstration showcased drones being used for mission-critical
applications since the 5G network enables greater precision in maneuvering the
drones and live streaming of high resolution(4k/8k) video. The 5G
infrastructure deployed by Ericsson at Airtel’s Telecom Center of Excellence in
collaboration with IIT Delhi was utilized to provide 5G airwaves for
demonstration of the use case.

The
application of the demonstration includes advanced disaster recovery services
using drones, such as delivery of equipment, medicine, food, water and blood or
the rapid deployment of a temporary cellular network using drones to enable
vital communications.

A.Mission Critical Logistics And Supplies

The
demonstration showcased a remotely controlled drone delivered supplies to a
pre-set location. The drone received instructions over an ultra-high-speed, low
latency 5G connection. It then operated autonomously, managed by a software
control system, and is guided by markers on the ground to the supply location.

B.Remote Surveillance

The
demonstration showcased a drone providing high quality video surveillance and
real-time streaming to the command center to assess the scene and act
accordingly.

The high bandwidth
provided by the 5G network is critical to simultaneously keep the drone flying
safely and stream video. In such operations where atmospheric conditions could
change quickly, the low latency connection enables the drone to make the
necessary flight adjustments in real time.